Thousands take to the streets in Pakistan, demanding ex-PM Imran Khan’s release.

Thousands of people demonstrated in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, demanding that the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, be released from prison on political charges leveled against him more than a year ago, his party claimed.

Sunday’s rally in Islamabad was the first show of strength by Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, since disputed national and regional elections in February. Images and videos posted on X showed Kahn’s supporters marching towards the capital from various parts of the country.

“We will not rest until Kahn is released from jail,” said Kahn’s close aide, Hammad Azhar, in the opening speech that set the tone of the rally. Salman Akram Raja, a noted lawyer and PTI leader from Lahore said Khan was the only one who could rescue the country from the “clutches of corrupt and incompetent politicians.”

The Islamabad administration had blocked vital entry points to the city, deploying shipping containers and riot police to forestall unrest. Social media videos seemed to show dozens of PTI activists managing to push aside containers to clear a path at one of the entry points. “It was tough to reach the rally.

All roads were closed. But we have decided. If Imran Khan calls for a protest and we don’t come, that’s impossible. We are with him until our last breath,” Robina Ghafoor, a PTI supporter, told Al Jazeera.

PTI said the authorities were persecuting workers to suppress the number at the rally. Visuals aired on the local broadcaster Samaa News showed enraged attendees hurling rocks at riot police, who also pelted tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.

Kamal Hyder of Al Jazeera reported from Islamabad that a Pakistani court had allowed the PTI to hold a rally on the outskirts of Islamabad for the first time since Khan’s arrest a year ago. “But the authorities have made rules along the routes by placing containers, making it difficult for people to reach the venue,” he said.

A spokesman for the Islamabad police had accused the protesters of pelting police personnel with stones, injuring many of them, including a senior official. Khan was ousted from office through a no-trust vote in April 2022. He was a former cricket star.

He has been imprisoned since August 2023, on trial for allegedly inciting violence on May 9 this year after his supporters ran amok and attacked military installations. Also muddling his case was an unprecedented arrest and subsequent court-martialing of a former spy chief widely believed to have been close to Mr. Khan when he was prime minister.

Khan has denied the charges against him. Over the past months, he has witnessed all his convictions being stayed, if not overturned. Last July, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar declared that the government was banning Khan’s PTI party over allegations of inciting violent protests last year and releasing classified information during a news conference in Islamabad.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan termed the bid to ban PTI “an enormous blow to democratic norms” and said it “reeks of political desperation.” A United Nations panel of rights experts also ruled in July that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appeared to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office.”